The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is gearing up for possible legal action aimed at blocking a rule proposed by the Trump administration that would empower the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to review reduction-in-force (RIF) appeals filed by federal workers.
AFGE – which is the largest union representing federal government employees – explained that the proposed rule published by OPM on Feb. 10 in the Federal Register would take the RIF appeals role away from the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).
MSPB was created in 1979 as a federal agency to guard federal government merit systems, protect government employees against improper management actions, and decide appeals of employee firings and suspensions.
AFGE said the administration’s proposed rule “is upending that statutory framework to make it easier for agencies to terminate federal workers with impunity.”
MSPB reported receiving more than 20,000 cases at its offices in fiscal year 2025, including those related to federal employee appeals.
AFGE said it will have more to say in comments the union plans to file on the proposed rule, and that “we will be reviewing our legal options if a final rule is issued.”
“For the past year, the Trump administration has been exerting its control over the Office of Personnel Management to illegally deny federal employees their right to appeal proposed terminations to the independent Merit Systems Protection Board,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley.
“First they went after employees on probation, then it was those deemed unsuitable for their jobs, and now they want to deny third-party review of any proposed reductions-in-force,” Kelley said.
“Eliminating independent review of federal RIF actions would not only make it harder for employees to challenge their proposed terminations, but would essentially give the administration free rein to terminate huge swaths of the federal workforce without meaningful independent oversight,” he said.